Version 0.9 has been release for quite some time but it was never announced on the website. Version 0.9 is available on sourceforge. If you are going to use klineakconfig please use the latest version.

It's been quite some time since I worked on Lineak. However there were a few simple bug fixes and keyboard additions to the config file that were easy to make so I've made them. However, these fixes are only available in CVS for now.

Cheers,
Sheldon.

Lineaksetup 0.1Monday, December 19 @ 05:32:40 PST

A new java based application has been introduced to the lineak suite called Lineaksetup. Lineaksetup is a wizard based application that gets a new user up and running to configure lineakd for the first time. It has very nice features such as command profiles and suggestions that allows you to pick a command for a key from a list.

Many thanks to Alex Brick for this wonderful application! If you have feedback or need help on getting it running, please join the lineak-devel mailing list.

Lineak 0.8.4 Final ReleasedMonday, December 19 @ 05:29:34 PST

Lineak 0.8.4 has been released as final. Many bugs have been fixed, and most continue to crop up as x86-64 becomes more popular :) A couple of new things were introduced. xsendkeys and xsendkey were both added as helper applications. Keyboard configurations not support a RAWCOMMAND[SETKEYCODES]="" directive for passing arguments to the setkeycodes command when lineakd starts. However, for this to work setkeycodes must be able to be run by the user. i.e. suid root. Anyone requiring special commands should send in patches for their keyboard description.

Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

Sheldon

Website back onlineThursday, November 10th 2005 @ 14:20:00 CET

After a few days of outage the website is back online again.
The MySQL services at sourceforge.net have been upgraded to version 4.1. During migration of the lineak database I lost the old data thus taking out the website too.
Thanks to the fabulous sourceforge.net staff I have recovered the data and finished the database migration successfully.

Cheers
Mark

Lineak 0.8.3 - The AMD64 ReleaseFriday, March 11 @ 05:53:09 PST

Several bugs have been fixed. Most seriously the AMD64 bugs. The code is now much more portable. I've also begun implementing support for an external helper application, but this has to be run as suid root, and can send commands directly to the keyboard, so it's a little dangerous. The helper command sends commands directly to the keyboard, and the keyboard definition can be configured to support this with a RAWCOMMANDS[INITIALIZE] = entry. It's just in the initial stages of support, so may not work for everything.

We've also updated the lineakkd.def file with more keyboards.

Many thanks for the patches that have been submitted (Aurelien), and the work on keeping the keyboard database up to date (Phil).

.. and Mark... come back, we need you! :)

Cheers,
Sheldon.

Lineak 0.8.1 Hits the Street!Wednesday, October 27 @ 06:08:35 PDT

Hello again! Just when you thought is couldn't get any better.... Lineakd 0.8.1 has been released. Other than bug fixes, there are a few nice surprises in the plugin packages.

First is the amarok plugin for the kdeplugins package.
Second (and I'm saving the best for last) is the Media-Detect plugin in the defaultplugin package. The Media-Detect plugin is inspired by Damon Kaswell. I allows you to specify the commands of multiple media players for things like play, pause, etc. and then picks one that is running, or a favoured player from among multiple players, and executes the desired action. From the README:

EAK_MEDIADETECT(COMMAND)
This macro allows you to use the media detect plugin to run
one of the supported commands. This plugins requires that you
have a configuration file in your ~/.lineak directory called
media-detect.conf

I'm working on adding application classes to this plugin so that we do specify things like webbrowsers, and others to the one config file and have ti do the right thing. That should show up in 0.8.2

Many thanks to Phil W. aka Sir Taco for updating and increasing the support of new keyboards, Damon K. for the original Media-Detect, and many others who provide bug reports, patches and packages (last but not least: Chris P.).

Cheers,
Sheldon and Mark.

Lineak 0.8 ReleasedMonday, September 13 @ 08:52:14 PDT

Hello! It's finally here! Lineak 0.8 has been released!

Together with this release, I'm also pleased to announce that Media-Detect, but Damon Kaswell has been added to the lineak project. Media Detect is a script package that detects which programs are running, and then runs the appropriate action. For example, if you use xmms and Juk, it will detect which one is running, and for a Next Song or Previous run the appropriate command.

In the final release, I snuck one feature in, configurable on-screen display messages. So, along with modifiers, loadable plugins, mouse button support, and many bug fixes, we finally have a flexible keyboard daemon.

Hello everyone. Sorry this took so long, but I've not had much time for programming these days.

Beta4 of version 0.8 is out, and this should be the very last beta (OK I know I've said that before.) There are mainly bug fixes and build fixes from the previous betas, but some new features have snuck in in recent Betas (since Beta1). Lineak now supports modifier keys with your easy access keys. We support the control,alt,shift, and mod2-mod5 keys.

To use a modifier, we do something like this in the config file:
Sleep+control = something
Sleep+alt = something different
Sleep+shift = something more different
Sleep = sleepiness

Also, those of you who use KDE, will want to check out the lineak_kdeplugins package that contains macros for konqueror, kmail, kmix, juk, and kdesktop. With modifier key support you can now assign multiple actions to keys. Your Back and Forward keys (if you have them) can now support Konqueror, JUK, KDesktop (to move back and forward desktops), etc.

Anyway, I'll leave this release out there for a while then if there aren't too many complaints re-release it as 0.8.

What I can promise is that it won't eat your system or crash randomly. I can promise that there may still be a few bugs, but I'm been using it myself for a couple of weeks now.

This release is a large change from the previous releases. It is now based on a plugin infrastructure. When you install lineakd it will also install a library liblineak that you can use to write plugins. So far, we have three plugin packages:

lineak_defaultplugin - This contains the original EAK_ style macros.
lineak_xosdplugin - This contains the XOSD on screen display functionality. It is no longer part of the lineakd daemon, and requires you to have Display_plugin = xosd in your config file. All XOSD_ style config options have now been replaced by a Display_ equivalent. Update your config files.
lineak_kdeplugins - This is a package of 5 plugins that support the KDE applications: KMix, Juk, KDesktop, KMail, and Konqueror. Not all functions of all of those applications are supported, but some common and helpful macros are there.

I'll let the dust settle on this for a little while. Enjoy your holiday season.

Cheers,
Sheldon.

Lineak in Linux Format Magazine!Tuesday, November 11 @ 12:33:02 PST

A co-worker of mine brought in the November issue of the Linux Format magazine yesterday and showed me something fairly exciting! Lineak is reviewed in it (even if it is briefly), and is included on a DVD that comes with the Magazine. The bottom of the cover of the DVD has
"Linux Easy Access Keyboards: Make your extra keys work with Linux and more!"